The Huntly Carter Collection provides a rich photographic
resource on Soviet theatre in the 1920s-30s. The collection consists
of some 360 artefacts. Around 300 are related to the theatre:
production stills (the majority), photo-portraits of leading figures
in the Soviet theatre (some autographed), and snapshots of Huntly
Carter with Soviet actors and directors at the Moscow Theatre
Festival in 1935. Two thirds of the production stills are from
the 1920s, the rest from the 1930s. They include production stills
from fifteen theatres in Moscow and Leningrad, including opera
and ballet: Alexandrinsky, Bolshoi, Gypsy, Kamerny, Leningrad
Youth, Mariinsky, Maly, Meyerhold, Moscow Arts, Moscow State Jewish,
Opytno-geroichesky, Proletkult, Revolution, State Children's and
Trade Union. The largest collections are from the Meyerhold Theatre
(sixteen productions), Moscow State Jewish Theatre (five productions),
Proletkult Theatre (four productions), State Children's Theatre
(seven productions).
The remaining items in the collection are mainly snapshots by
Huntly Carter of street scenes, his photographs and other materials
on the new architecture in Soviet Russia, and some postcards.
The collection is of interest to researchers, theatre practitioners
and publishers.
Huntly Carter (1860s-1942) was a British theatre critic, journalist
and lecturer who travelled extensively in the Soviet Union in
the 1920s-30s. A passionate believer in the transformative role
of theatre in society, he was struck by the 'new spirit' that
developed in Russian theatre after the October Revolution of 1917
and became strongly sympathetic to the Soviet project that had
enabled such a cultural transformation. In the UK, Carter was
an energetic advocate of the Soviet avant-garde theatre, presenting
it as a template for a similar revolution in the British theatre.
Today there is renewed interest in Huntly Carter's life and work.
Carter's interest in avant-garde Russian theatre pre-dates the
Revolution: his 1913 book The New Spirit in Drama and Art
includes a chapter on Moscow, based on a visit in 1911. However,
during the 1920s-30s he travelled regularly to the USSR, meeting
the leading theatre directors, actors and stage designers of the
day, attending the annual theatre festivals, and collecting a
mass of photographs, theatrical ephemera and documentary material.
He was in constant correspondence with Soviet theatre practitioners,
individual theatres and cultural institutions. This all became
the source material for Carter's prolific output as a writer and
lecturer. His travels to Soviet Russia in the 1920s resulted in
two key books: The New Theatre and Cinema of Soviet Russia
(1924) and The New Spirit in the Russian Theatre (1929).
These books provide an exciting sense of the revolutionary spirit
of that time in the theatre, they record his meetings with actors,
directors and designers, describe in detail the theatrical productions
he saw, and define different stages and approaches in the development
of the new Soviet theatre.
Carter was a founding member of our Society (then known as the
Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR, or SCR), which was
established in July 1924. He remained a member until his death
in 1942, when part of his personal collection relating to the
USSR (mainly photographs) was bequeathed to the Society. This
bequest forms the Huntly Carter Collection in the SCRSS Photo
Library. The collection is digitised but not yet catalogued online.
In 2025 the Society is continuing its review of our existing captions
list against the original artefacts, and in due course plans to
make this available in our online library catalogue.
For more information, see feature article Huntly Carter and
the 'New Spirit' in Soviet Theatre, SCRSS
Digest, Summer 2022 (Issue SD-26), pages 8-13. |
